


Should Have Brought a Bag

by FleetofShippyShips



Series: Bookmarks and Chocolates and Dates [2]
Category: Harry Potter - J. K. Rowling
Genre: Established Relationship, F/F, HP: EWE, Hogwarts Eighth Year, book shopping as a date
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2018-02-18
Updated: 2018-02-18
Packaged: 2019-03-20 17:06:18
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,032
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/13722189
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/FleetofShippyShips/pseuds/FleetofShippyShips
Summary: Hermione takes Pansy book shopping in muggle London.





	Should Have Brought a Bag

Hermione had always felt at peace in bookstores. The older, the better. The musty smell of second-hand bookstores had to be one of her favourite smells. Her dad had always shaken his head at her when he’d taken her book shopping, but he always seemed to find the best stores, tucked away down side streets. It was a tradition they had for Hermione's birthday. The first Saturday following her birthday was always spent with her dad, going from store to store.

Taking Pansy to all her favourite stores had been something she’d wanted to do more and more as they’d become closer. She’d never really noticed Pansy read so much before their repeat seventh-year, but then, for so many years, they’d rather hated one another. Then discovering Pansy’s love for reading was tainted by the worry that Pansy might be cruel about muggle literature.

The first time she’d seen Pansy reading a muggle book, a small and oddly battered edition of _Black Beauty_ , she’d almost squealed from excitement. She’d restrained herself to a bit of a wriggle in her seat, but since they were still edging around each other at that point, she hadn’t said anything about it at all.

She had peeked at Pansy more often than she should have, since she was supposed to be studying. Pansy had been using a crocheted bookmark for that book, periwinkle blue and very soft and delicate looking. She kept brushing the end of it over her chin while she read. It was almost as distracting as the new knowledge that Pansy read muggle novels too.

Hermione rather suspected that seeing her play with her bookmarks, always at her chin, over her lips, sometimes even her cheeks, had had a lot to do with her desire to kiss her. Constantly drawing Hermione’s attention to her lips.

Hermione was not confident that that was accidental. Pansy was a Slytherin after all.

After finally clearing the air about what they were to each other, after many kisses behind the shelves in the library and alcoves throughout the castle, Hermione decided it was time to take Pansy around her favourite stores. The weekend after they’d declared their relationship to the other eighth-years at the Valentine’s day party seemed apt.

But it turned out that instead of worrying about what Pansy might say about the stores and their muggle nature, or about the tradition Hermione shared with her dad, she should have been worried about Pansy breaking the Statute of Secrecy.

“What are you doing?” she hissed, grabbing Pansy’s hand when it went for the pocket of her coat, where Hermione knew her wand was hidden. “Think about where we are!”

“No one will notice if I shrink my books,” Pansy replied.

Hermione shook her head, picking up one of the piles of books Pansy had purchased and pushing them at her. She picked up her other stack, and nodded her head towards the door, glad the shopkeeper had wandered off into the depths of his store as soon as they’d paid.

“Carry them like everyone else,” she said, balancing Pansy’s second stack on one hand long enough to pick up the handles of the bag she’d put her own purchases in. “I told you to bring a bag!”

“I brought a bag!” Pansy snapped, sticking her elbow out to the side to showcase the tiny handbag hanging off it.

Hermione scoffed, nudging her towards the door. They stepped out onto the pavement, and Pansy almost dropped her books. The stack was high enough to reach her nose. She looked rather ridiculous, and Hermione snickered behind the stack she was carrying.

“This is unbearable,” Pansy muttered, adjusting her grip and nearly losing the stack again. “That was the first store! What am I supposed to do at the others? Can’t we just…. there’s got to be an alley around here somewhere we can—”

“And what about everyone who sees us go into the alley carrying two stacks of books?” Hermione interrupted. “We can’t just walk back out without those books.”

Pansy scowled over the top of her books. “This is ridiculous!”

Hermione openly laughed. “No, what’s ridiculous is how many books you got. You have to pace yourself! You can always come back another day!”

“Pacing out purchases is for the poor,” Pansy sniffed.

“That’s a horrible thing to say!” Hermione scolded.

Pansy looked around. “There’s got to be a store around here that sells bags.”

Hermione bit her lip against another laugh. Pansy looked so disgruntled. Every time she turned to look in a different direction her stack of books wobbled and she nearly lost them again.

“We could call it a day,” Hermione suggested.

“Absolutely not!” Pansy said, not even turning to look at her. “You promised me a book shopping date, and one stop is insufficient! We’ll find a shop with bags, buy a bag or two, maybe nip into a public loo somewhere and shrink the books just enough to make more space, but not enough to be noticeable, and then we go to the next store! Even if we have to get on another awful bus to get there.”

Hermione grinned before she could stop herself. Pansy was perfect. Ridiculous, still a bit of a snob really, but _perfect_.

“Don’t forget about stopping for morning tea,” she said, stepping closer and brushing her elbow against Pansy’s arm. Morning tea where they’d probably sit and read and not even talk to each other, but even though that probably wasn’t considered a good date by others, it sounded perfect to her.

“Ooh, yes!” Pansy exclaimed. “Maybe after we get bags, actually. I’m gasping for a cup of tea!”

Hermione smiled at her, and then looked around. “This way, there’s a bunch of different stores up the road a bit. There might be some bags there.”

They set off, but then immediately had to slow down.

“If you let me walk into anything or trip, I won’t speak to you for a week,” Pansy said, wobbling along with a death grip on her stack of books, measuring each step carefully.

Hermione bit her lip against another laugh, and let their shoulders brush with every other step.

**Author's Note:**

> I've had the idea for this jotted down since I posted the first fic, thought it was about time I wrote it, even though it's just a short drabble of a thing =)


End file.
